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WASCAL DEEPENS TIES WITH BURKINA FASO

WASCAL has expressed its deepest gratitude to the Government and people of Burkina Faso for the tremendous support it has given the institution over the past years. WASCAL also congratulated the country for its up-to-date payment of their country contribution.

This was contained in the speech of the Board Chair of WASCAL, Mr. Peter Dery when they paid a courtesy call on His Excellency S.E.M Pingrenoma Zagré, the Burkina Faso Ambassador to Ghana.

Dr. Moumini Savadogo, the Executive Director of WASCAL also thanked the people of Burkina Faso and called on the ambassador to leverage on his mandate to project the great bilateral relationship between their country and WASCAL, and also the success stories of WASCAL amongst his counterparts. He also used the opportunity to brief the ambassador on the proposed commencement of the construction of the Competence Centre building scheduled for this year.

His Excellency Zagré was pleased to welcome the delegation and pledged his support for the growth of WASCAL in the West African Region.

The WASCAL Competence Centre which houses all the Scientists is based in Burkina Faso. The Government of Burkina Faso has also offered a vast land to WASCAL for the commencement of a Climate Change Centre of Excellence. The multi-purpose edifice, when completed will serve as the hub and point of reference for climate change research Africa. Plans are also far advanced for WASCAL to begin its new Masters Programme in Informatics for Climate Change at the University of Ouaga 1-Prof. Joseph Ki-Zerbo

TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR ABDOURAHAMANE KONARÉ

With deep sorrow, we announce the demise of our Board Member and 1st Vice Chair, Professor Abdourahamane Konaré, who passed away in the early hours of Thursday, 26th October 2017 after a long and gallant battle against the illness that eventually took him away from us. A good heart has stopped beating; a gentle soul is gone.

Until his untimely death, Professor Konaré served our noble organization with uncommon diligence and complete dedication. He was a founding member of the Task Force that was commissioned to bring about WASCAL and was a member of the inaugural Governing Board representing the Government of Côte d’Ivoire. His tenure was renewed after 3 years of great service to WASCAL and he was elected 1st Vice Chairman of the current Board in 2015.

We have lost one of the few true giants in the African community of climate scientists. We are, however, thankful that Professor Konaré leaves a legacy of scholarly contributions that will outlive him and continue to enrich the careers of the next generation of climate scientists in our region through his relentless and ultimately successful effort to bring High Performance Computing (HPC) capability to West Africa. Sadly, he will not be here with us to witness the official opening of the new HPC Center in Abidjan by His Excellency, Alassane Ouattara, President of Côte d’Ivoire scheduled for 4th December 2017. The official opening of this facility is intended to kick off the 2017 WASCAL Week, which, again thanks to Professor Konaré, we are co-organizing with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.

On behalf of the Governing Board, our sponsor BMBF, and the Executive Management, we extend our deepest condolences to the family that he left behind, all his friends and colleagues from Côte d’Ivoire and entire WASCAL family. Prof Konaré’s untimely departure leaves us in grief and heartbroken. He will forever remain in our hearts.

Rest in Peace, Prof Abdourahamane Konaré, our Board 1st Vice Chair, our colleague, our friend, our mentor and our hero.

HOMMAGE AU PROFESSEUR ABDOURAHAMANE KONARÉ

C’est avec une profonde tristesse que nous annonçons le décès du premier vice-président de notre membre du Conseil d’administration, le professeur Abdourahamane Konaré, décédé, le jeudi 26 octobre 2017, suite d’une longue et vaillante lutte contre la maladie qui finalement l’a emporté loin de nous. Un bon cœur a cessé de battre ; une âme douce a disparu.

Le professeur Konaré a servi notre noble organisation avec une diligence inhabituel et un dévouement total, jusqu’à sa mort subite. Il a été l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe de travail qui était chargé de créer WASCAL et aussi un membre du premier conseil d’administration représentant le gouvernement de la Côte d’Ivoire. Son mandat a été renouvelé après 3 années de bonnes prestations à WASCAL et il a été élu présentement, en 2015 comme 1er vice-président du Conseil.

Nous avons perdu l’un des rares véritables géants de la communauté africaine des climatologues. Nous sommes toutefois reconnaissants que le professeur Konaré à laisser un héritage de contributions scientifiques qui lui survivront et enrichiront les parcours professionnels de la prochaine génération de climatologues dans notre région grâce à ses efforts incessants et fructueux pour apporter la capacité Informatique de Haute Performance (HPC) à l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Malheureusement, il ne sera pas parmi nous à l’ouverture officielle du nouveau Centre HPC d’Abidjan par Son Excellence Alassane Ouattara, Président de la Côte d’Ivoire, prévue pour le 4 décembre 2017. L’ouverture officielle du Centre est prévue pour marquer le coup d’envoi) de la semaine de WASCAL 2017, qui, encore une fois grâce à Konaré, que nous collaborons avec le gouvernement de la Côte d’Ivoire.

Au nom du Conseil d’Administration, de nos partenaire de BMBF et de la Direction Exécutive de WASCAL, nous offrons nos plus sincères condoléances à la famille qu’il a quitté subitement , à tous ses amis et collègues de Côte d’Ivoire et à toute la famille entière de WASCAL. Le départ prématuré du professeur Konaré nous laisse dans le chagrin et le cœur brisé. Il restera pour toujours dans nos cœurs.

Repose en paix, Prof Abdourahamane Konaré, notre 1er vice-président, notre collègue, notre ami, notre mentor et notre héros.

Ghana to Benefit from New Regional Weather Stations

The stations would be an improvement of the sub-region’s 150 operational Synoptic Weather Stations since according to the World Meteorological Organisation, West Africa needs 2000 of the stations to help close meteorological data gaps in West Africa.WASCAL has signed a Memoranda of Understanding agreement with the Ghana Meteorological Services Department and this Ghana one of the first beneficiaries of the new weather stations.

Professor Jimmy Adegoke, the Executive Director of WASCAL, said this on Thursday at the opening session of its 11th board meeting in Accra.He said WASCAL was determined to establish a fully operational climate services programme by 2021 to provide relevant climate services for West African governments, regional economic bodies, basin authorities and other stakeholders for decision making.

Prof Adegoke said WASCAL received one million euro from the African Development Bank to build a world-class Climate Change Competence Centre in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.The Centre would serve as West Africa’s foremost Climate Research Center and regional hub for climate services, multi-purpose conferences, capacity building in climate change and other related activities.

Prof Adegoke said since WASCAL establishment in 2013, it has graduated 152 students whilst 106 students were currently in the WASCAL Graduate Studies Programmes located in the 10 member countries.He said plans were far advanced to commence a new Masters Programme in Informatics for Climate Change in Burkina Faso in 2018.

“The vision of WASCAL is to become one of Africa’s leading institutions in the provision of climate services to protect and improve livelihoods across West Africa through capacity building, research and climate services”, he said.Prof Kwabena Frempong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global temperatures could rise another 1-2 °C by 2050 and 2-5 °C by 2100 depending on the additional quantity of greenhouse gases humans emit into the atmosphere over the coming decades.

He said the fight against climate change was mainly attributed to man-made activities, resulting in the adverse impact on livelihoods and commended WASCAL for its role to address the situation.Prof Frimpong-Boateng said the country would collaborate with WASCAL and ensure that any support needed are provided and urged member countries to deliberate on the sustainability of WASCAL.

Mr Christoph Retzlaff, the German Ambassador to Ghana, said the approach to climate change involves a concerted effort and that German research policy is oriented towards international cooperation.He said research on climate change and adaptive land use are key priorities for guaranteeing the livelihood of mankind, hence the need for more support to address the concern.

WASCAL was established in 2013 after an agreement was signed between Germany and ten West African countries to address the growing challenge of climate change.The countries are Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote de Ivoire, the Gambia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC)

General context

WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) is a research and education-focused institute designed to help tackle the climate change challenge and thereby enhance the resilience of human environmental systems. It does so by strengthening the research capacity and infrastructure in West Africa related to climate change by pooling the expertise of ten West African countries and Germany. The West African countries include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. For 2018-2021, WASCAL will implement its research and action plan (WRAP2.0) to carry out the “Demand-driven Research for Effective Actions to Adapt and Mitigate Climate Change and Variability in West Africa (DREAM)”. To achieve this objective, four Flagship Programs (FP) are framed:

– Flagship Program 1: Climate and Environmental Services

– Flagship Program 2: Resilient Socio-ecological Landscapes

– Flagship Program 3: Sustainable Intensification and Food Security

– Flagship Program 4: Climate Modeling and Seasonal Forecasting

While FP4 feeds into FP2 and FP3, all the three of them support a steady provision of climate and environmental services (i.e. FP1) for the ECOWAS countries. This puts the climate modeling and seasonal forecasting activity at the center of the WRAP2.0 implementation process.

High Performance Computing (HPC) within West Africa

The WASCAL community, including the Competence Center (CoC), the German partners (i.e. KIT) and the graduate schools, carry out climate modeling and seasonal forecasting. Models need to be further developed to fit the West African climate and will be run at high resolution, i.e. at scales required for impacts and adaptation studies. These simulations are computationally expensive and necessitate a HPC environment. The absence of HPC has long undermined the contribution of West African scientists to the development and implementation of international programs such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX). To tackle this issue, affirm our presence and enable us to contribute to the global effort to combat climate change, WASCAL CoC and some of its member countries (e.g. Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire) are in the process of acquiring state-of-the-art HPC systems. While the CoC system and that of Senegal should be fully operational in 2018, Côte d’Ivoire with the assistance of ATOS BULL company will officially open its facility in December this year during the 2017 WASCAL Week (i.e. December 5th to 8th, 2017) at an official ceremony to be attended by his Excellency the Prime Minister of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire on 4th December 2017. This HPC system consists of 576 processors for a total of 8064 cores along with a storage capacity of 1.3 Petabytes (1 Petabyte = 1000 Terrabytes).

The Workshop

Along with the opening of this HPC facility, WASCAL is jointly organizing (with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire) an International Workshop on HPC applications for West African climate and environmental systems to be held from the 7th to the 8th of December, 2017 at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Pole Scientifique de Berginville, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The main objective of the workshop is to provide a forum for HPC users to share their experience and explore opportunities for fully unlocking the potential of the system to drive innovations while addressing big challenges.

The workshop will consist of a series of keynote addresses to put the issue of HPC at the center of interest, invited talks to showcase existing HPC projects and climate/environmental applications (e.g. DKRZ, ICTP, CHPC, etc. ) and participants presentations. A list of invited speakers is below (see last page).

Participation

The workshop is intended for scientists and graduate students working in the areas of Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics, Climatology, Oceanography, Physics, Mathematics and Modeling. A limited number (up to 50) of participants is envisioned, with proven experience in HPC applications and a strong interest in using the system for regional climate/environmental studies. The workshop will be conducted in both English and French (translators will be available). Limited funding (including travel grants: flight ticket, accommodation and subsistence) is available for participants from Africa.

How to apply?

Interested candidates can apply by sending an abstract of their presentation and a short CV (not more than 2 pages) to

Sylla.b(at)wascal.org and cc to ndatchoheve(at)yahoo.fr.

Graduate students and early career scientists applying for sponsorship should also include in their application a motivation letter and a recommendation letter.

Deadline: 20th of October 2017

Contact info

· Dr. Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla (WASCAL CoC, Ouaga, Burkina): +226 76 89 66 70

· Dr. Evelyne Toure’ (UFHB, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire): +225 07 07 89 69

Dates of workshop: 7th-8th of December, 2017

Venue : Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Pole Scientifique de Berginville, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

WASCAL PARTICIPATES IN GERMANY – GHANA 60TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT

WASCAL participated in the Germany Goes Ghana- Open Doors, Open Minds event in Accra to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Germany and Ghana under the auspices of the German Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Mr. Christoph Retzlaff.

Dr. Divine Odame Appiah, an alumnus of WASCAL, from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Climate Change and Land Use, participated in the discussion forum that sought to deliberate on opportunity creation in Ghana. In his submission, he emphasized on the need to develop a problem-solving attitude among the youth in the country. He explained that YOUTH is an acronym which denotes “Young (Y), Outstanding (O), Unique (U), Talented (T), and Happy (H). Young (Y) defines the age category of before adulthood. This he said, is the stage where youth is at its best and both positive and negative energies could be released, depending on the mindset and perspectives about life and what they want to become. Outstanding; Youth are expected to exhibit excellence in whatever they do. Whatever they do, must be done with utmost precision so as to stand out. Unique; youth are what they present themselves to be. Dr. Appiah underscored the fact that, as a young adult/youth, no one can be you and that everything that belongs to you is exclusively your attributes and character. Hence you are the product of your character and there is no room to blame someone for your failures. This also means, you are the architect of your successes as well. Talented; every human being is endowed with some skills, talents and abilities that distinguishes him/her from others. It is up to the individual to discover that special gift that sets him/her apart from other. It is also essential to channel these gifts into profitable ventures. Happy; happiness is relative; however, a general connotation will be when the individual is satisfied and fulfilled in whatever he/she does. When a task is accomplished, it brings a sense of happiness to the individual.

Dr. Appiah linked his submission to the scholarship being offered by WASCAL through its Graduate Studies Programme which is aimed at building the next generation of West African Scientists to help solve the challenges of climate change in the sub-region, under the sponsorship of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Germany goes Ghana – Open doors, Open Minds attracted students, graduates, young professionals as well as the general public from Ghana. The objective of the event was to create awareness among the Ghanaian youth about the opportunities available to them as a result of the German-Ghanaian bilateral cooperation and to exhibit some of the major achievements after 60 years of a vibrant, dynamic and divers bilateral relationship.